Dean Juipe: Softball star has numbers like Williams

Monday, May 5, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

IF THE subject is home runs and UNLV, the name Matt Williams comes immediately to mind.

Now an all-star at the major league level with the Cleveland Indians, Williams put in a celebrated three seasons with the Rebels in the mid-'80s. Aside from being a pivotal player on some great teams, he set the school record with 58 career home runs.

People knew who he was even then, and respected him for his achievements. In 1990 he became the first UNLV baseball player to have his jersey -- No. 15 -- retired.

Now the school ought to do the same for another high-quality, home-run hitting infielder, Kim Rondina.

With considerably less fanfare than that of Williams, Rondina is a doubleheader at New Mexico away from completing her four-year college career with the UNLV softball team. Few in Las Vegas are aware of it, but she will leave the program as its all-time leader in home runs, batting average, runs, hits, doubles and RBI.

Her home run total of 45 is the sixth best in NCAA history and one more would put her in a tie for fourth.

Yet when it comes to public exposure, Rondina has played in virtual seclusion.

"Yeah, it would have been great to have more recognition, but you've got to do what you want to do for yourself," she said. "If I was playing for the pub, I'd be in trouble."

She doesn't appear to be the least bit troubled.

Saturday, as the Rebels were wrapping up the home portion of their 1997 schedule, Rondina intermingled easily with teammates during the game and with children and a reporter afterward. She was a model of decorum on a day when a lesser person might have felt the need to retrospectively question whether UNLV was the right choice for her, and whether anyone even noticed her four years of superb statistics.

After all, she has rewritten the UNLV softball record book without denting the public's consciousness.

"I think we all know we're not going to get the attention of the media like basketball, football and even baseball does," Rondina said. "That's all right. Out here, it's like a family. We have a nice inner circle of friends and fans who support us."

That inner circle was at Saturday's doubleheader in part to see Rondina's farewell, and, fittingly, her last at-bat was a memorable one. With UNLV tied with Hawaii in the bottom of the seventh (and final) inning, Rondina came to bat with a runner at third and lined a game-winning single to right for a 4-3 victory that snapped a five-game losing streak.

For the afternoon, the Scottsdale, Ariz., native was 4 for 5 at the plate and a hit as well with the members of a girls softball team that met with the Rebels afterward.

For the season, she's hitting .424 with 14 homers and 40 RBI -- all team highs.

For her career, she's hitting .411, with those 45 home runs, 164 runs, 282 hits, 51 doubles and 167 RBI -- all school records.

"She's leaving us with big shoes to fill," said UNLV head coach Shan McDonald. "When you're one of the leading hitters in the nation, you're making a big difference for your team."

Rondina never expected to make this kind of difference for the Rebels. She certainly couldn't have foreseen becoming the school's greatest home-run threat, for two very good reasons: Her total of home runs in high school was zero; and the Rebels play their home games in a park that's pitcher-friendly in that its dimensions minimize the chance for a long ball.

"When I came here, I was just trying to earn a position on the team," she said unpretentiously. "In high school I was a dead-pull hitter who never had a home run. But I hit a home run in my first at-bat here and that seemed like a great way to get started."

And a game-winning RBI in her final home at-bat was an appropriate bookend to that unexpected first home run back in 1994. But while this has been a typically successful season for Rondina, it has been an unexpectedly sour one for a Rebels team that lacks sufficient pitching and quality defense.

They're 25-27 overall and 16-14 in the WAC with two games left to play, Saturday at New Mexico. Win or lose in Albuquerque, those games will be the last this season for UNLV, as there is no postseason WAC tournament and the Rebels -- for the first time this decade -- are not going to be invited to the NCAA tourney.

"This is hard to take for the people that have been here for a few years," Rondina said. "It's an unfortunate thing. We're disappointed in that we lost some games we were capable of winning.

"It's never good to have hardships and losses. But, emotionally, the team has matured and we kept scratching even after we knew we weren't going to win any championships."

Likely to be named an All-American for the third time, Rondina plans to play softball for a summer-league team that has four Olympians on it, then return to UNLV for grad school next fall. She's a physical therapy major.

If anything, she'll melt into campus life as a grad-school student with an even lower public profile than she has today.

"That's OK," she said. "A lot of times when I did get my name in the papers it was more for my parents than anything. They like to see things like that so they can tell their friends, 'Oh look, here's Kim's name in the paper.'"

She still has some ink to come, as UNLV will almost certainly see fit to induct her into its athletic Hall of Fame in the future. There's also the possibility of having her jersey retired, which would direct a little more belated attention her way.

"Kim Rondina?" Las Vegans will muse, if and when UNLV honors its slugging shortstop. "Quiet type, wasn't she? Played four great years and broke all the school's hitting records.

"It was like she was the Matt Williams of softball -- but without the press clippings."